The Etruscan (21 page)

But his words only excited me and once again I felt the glorious sting of the goddess’s threads and was filled with impatience.

“Arsinoe,” I whispered. “Arsinoe.”

“Her name is Istafra,” said the old man petulantly. “Why shouldn’t you know that also? I must die either now or later and I would rather do so later. That is really the only problem. But some day I must die anyway, and compared to that, what happens to her or you is unimportant. I wasted my powers in vain, and in vain rose from my soft bed. Do what you will, it does not concern me.”

We quarreled no more. He took the lamp and led me behind the empty pedestal of the goddess, opened a narrow door and descended before me down stone steps into the earth. The passage was so narrow that I had to turn my shoulders sideways. He led me past the treasure chamber of the goddess into Arsinoe’s room and awakened her.

Arsinoe had been sleeping with only a thin woolen cover over her, the new parasol in her hand. But when she awakened and saw us she flew into a rage.

“How have you been reared, Turms, that you don’t allow a woman to sleep in peace? You must be mad to force yourself into the goddess’s secret chambers in search of me.”

Angry, naked, and with the parasol in her hand she was so enchanting that I was overcome by an irresistible desire to push the priest out of the room and take her in my arms. But since I knew that it would have lasted until morning I controlled my impatience.

“Arsinoe,” I said, “rejoice. The goddess is giving you to me but we must leave immediately and in all secrecy and you must go as you are.”

The priest nodded. “That is so, Istafra. The power of this stranger is greater than mine, therefore it is best that you leave with him. When you are rid of him you can return and I will testify that he abducted you by force. But before that, to please me, make his life as difficult as you can and let him suffer the results of his madness.”

Arsinoe protested sleepily, “I don’t want to go with him and have never promised that I would. Besides, I don’t even know what to wear.”

Impatiently I told her that she had to come as she was because of my promise that we would take nothing belonging to the goddess. I did not wish to rob the goddess, I said, and for my part Arsinoe’s white skin was her most beautiful garment until such a time as I could buy her new clothes.

My words seemed to appease her and she said that she would at least take the parasol since it was my gift to her. But under no circumstances did she intend to follow me and throw herself like some stupid girl at the first stranger.

“So be it,” I said in fury. “I shall hit you over the head and carry you over my shoulder if you prefer that, although I may injure your lovely skin.”

She grew calmer at that and turned her back on us as though in contemplation.

The priest extended a round bowl and a stone knife to me and said, “Now consecrate yourself.”

“Consecrate,” I repeated. “What do you mean?”

“Bind yourself eternally to Aphrodite. It is the least I can expect of you whether you are mortal or not.”

When I remained silent he thought that I hesitated for lack of knowledge. Irritably he explained, “Scratch a wound in your thigh with the goddess’s knife, which is as old as the goddess’s fountain. Shed your blood into the bowl which is made of the goddess’s wood. Drop by drop repeat after me the words of consecration. That is all.”

“Nay,” I protested, “I have not the slightest intention of consecrating myself to Aphrodite. I am what I am. Let that suffice for the goddess from whom I accept this woman as a gift.”

The priest stared at me, not believing his ears. Then his temples and lips swelled with anger, words failed him and he fell to the floor, the goddess’s bowl and knife rolling from his hand. I feared that he had suffered a stroke, but there was no time to revive him.

Arsinoe watched, her lips tightly closed, as I felt her hair to make certain that she had nothing belonging to the goddess. Then I seized her hand, flung my mantle over her and led her out of the chamber. She followed me submissively up to the temple without saying a word.

We crossed the dark courtyard, stumbling over storm-torn branches, and climbed the wall where I had come down. I descended ahead of her, placing her foot on each tent peg so that she was able to reach the ground with but a few scratches. Then I climbed up again and removed the pegs so that no one would know how I had entered the temple. I put my arm around Arsinoe and with pounding heart led her to the inn. Still she had not said a word.

But we were barely within four clay walls when her behavior changed completely. Wrathfully she spat out of her mouth a handful of golden jewelry, hairpins and rings and then fell upon me, beating and kicking and scratching. All the while she poured forth the most horrible words, but fortunately for me her knowledge of Greek was soon exhausted and she had to curse me in Phoenician which I did not fully understand. I had no opportunity to reproach her for having stolen despite her promise, so occupied was I in holding her kicking limbs and in pressing my palm against her mouth lest she awaken the entire inn.

Afterwards I realized that she did not actually scream very loudly but rather guardedly as though unwilling to awaken my sleeping comrades and the people of the inn. At the time, however, in the silence of the night, her voice sounded louder in my ears than warning drums. But soon the touch of her aroused the fire of Aphrodite in my body, I closed her mouth with my own, and in a moment we were lying breast to breast. I felt her heart beating against me as violently as my own, until her body softened, her arms wound themselves around my neck, and with a backward toss of her head she exhaled her hot breath in my face.

“Oh, Turms!” she whispered finally. “Why do you do this to me? I didn’t want to. I resisted with all my strength, but you are stronger than 1.1 will follow you even to the ends of the earth.”

She hugged my loins fiercely, kissed my face and shoulders, caressed the scratches she had made and murmured, “I didn’t hurt you, did I, beloved? I didn’t mean to. Oh, Turms, no man has been to me what you are. I am yours, solely and completely yours.”

She raised herself on her elbow, touched my face and looked at me lovingly.

“I will follow you to the ends of the earth,” she swore. “I will forsake the goddess and my life of luxury and all other men for your sake. Even if you were the poorest beggar I would gladly share your pauper’s porridge and be content with water to drink because you are what you are. I love you madly, Turms, and you must love me a little, too, since you risked such danger to abduct me from the temple.”

Sapless like a crushed plum, I assured her of my love. She listened contentedly, then began walking to and fro, describing with animation the clothes she intended to obtain. Suddenly she noticed the moonstone that hung around my neck on a cord.

“That is beautiful,” she said, fingering it absently. “May I try it?”

She slipped it off my neck and around her own. Twisting her body this way and that to see it, she asked, “Isn’t it beautiful against my skin? But I must get a thin golden chain for it, like those made by the

Etruscans.” I remarked that the simple fiber cord was made of Artemis’ fibers and thus belonged to the moonstone. “But keep it if you wish,” I smiled. “It didn’t shield me from madness since I so madly fell in love with you.”

She stared at me and then demanded, “What do you mean? Is it madness to love me? In that case let us end the matter right now and I will return to the temple. Keep your stupid stone since you are so miserly about it.”

She tore the cord, flung the stone in my face and began to weep bitterly. I bounded from the bed to console her, pressed the stone into her palm and promised to buy her a golden chain as soon as we reached Himera.

“I really don’t need it,” I assured her. “The stone is quite worthless to me.”

Looking at me through her tears she said accusingly, “So now you are forcing worthless gifts on me! You certainly are not considerate. Yes, I know, you intend to keep me as your dog. Oh, why did you kindle my heart?”

Tiring of her talk, I said, “The stone is beautiful, but for my part you may throw it out the window. Only a moment ago it gleamed against your bosom, but I would rather look at your lovely breasts on either side of it. They are your finest jewels and suffice to make you the most beautiful woman wherever you may be.”

“Surely you don’t expect me to follow you naked to the ends of the earth to share the lot of a poor man?” she asked in a tight voice.

“Listen, Arsinoe or Istafra, whichever you are,” I said. “At this moment we have more important things to do than to argue. After all, we have the rest of our lives for that. Even if I had the means to purchase all the clothing that you mentioned, they would fill at least ten baskets and we would need more donkeys and drovers to transport them. We must leave as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. For the time being you will wear Aura’s clothes and assume her countenance until we reach Himera. Once there, I will see what I can do for you.”

“How can I wear the coarse clothes of a lowly Siculian girl?” she demanded. “How could I appear before the people without ornamenting my hair? No, no, you don’t realize what you are asking of me, Turms. I am ready for any sacrifice in your behalf, but I could not imagine that you would expect such humiliating sacrifices of me.”

Her face was pale in the lamplight because I had abducted her from bed as she was. A tear dropped from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. I tried to explain that Aura, after all, had been the wife of a Greek physician and that Mikon had been able to provide a moderate wardrobe for her. True, Aura had been so young that she had not found it necessary to redden her lips and color her eyes, but she, Arsinoe, could use Tanakil’s paints to make herself seem younger.

That I should have left unsaid, and my only defense is that at that time I did not understand women.

“So you consider me decrepit!” she began, and our argument was sharper than any previous exchange. To my horror the gray dawn began to creep into the room and the first cock crowed somewhere in the city before I succeeded in calming her.

Without daring to open my mouth again since I seemed always to say the wrong thing, I hastened to awaken Dorieus and Mikon and then ran to explain everything to Tanakil.

As an experienced woman she immediately understood the inevitable and did not waste time in fruitless accusations. Quickly she clothed Arsinoe in Aura’s best garments, gave her her own bead-embroidered shoes because Aura’s shoes were too large, and helped her to paint her face to resemble Aura.

Then she lashed awake her servants, packed her goods and settled her account with the innkeeper. As the sun was coloring the peaks of Eryx a rosy red, we were already hurrying across the city and reached the wall just as the sleepy guards were opening the gate. We left the city without being stopped, and as we started down the circling pilgrims’ road our horses whinnied and donkeys brayed with joy.

Tanakil had made room for Arsinoe in her own litter. When we were halfway down the mountain the sun was up, the sky smiled with twinkling blue eyes, and the calm sea called to the ships with playful waves to begin the sailing season. The barren mountain cone had turned green, in the valley black and white oxen were plowing the fields, farmers were spitting seeds into the earth and the land was gay with flowers.

Mikon was still so confused from his wine-drinking that he followed us involuntarily, swaying like a sack on the back of a donkey. When he saw Arsinoe he sighed heavily, addressed her as Aura and asked how she was. He apparently had either forgotten Aura’s death or considered it but a drunken hallucination. Presumably he thought that everything was as it should be, although he did not appear as contented as he had during the previous days.

I myself did not dare to talk to Arsinoe during our entire descent down the mountain. But when we had reached the valley and were watering our animals before turning onto the road to Segesta, she drew aside the curtain and called to me softly.

“Oh, Turms! Is the air really so delightful to breathe, and is it possible that ash-smeared bread can be so delicious? Oh, Turms, never have I been so happy! I believe I really love you. You will never again be as cruel to me as you were this morning, will you?”

We turned onto the road to Segesta and finally reached Himera safely. True, the trying journey had made us irritable, but at least we were alive and no one had pursued us. Immediately upon our arrival in the city, at Dorieus’ suggestion, we sacrificed the largest cock in Himera to Herakles.

Our return to Himera attracted no attention. Five we had been when we set forth and five returned. So consummately had Arsinoe assumed the countenance and demeanor of Aura that Mikon, his perception dulled from days of drinking in Eryx, actually believed her his wife. It was with difficulty that I banished him from Arsinoe’s resting place whenever he sought to exercise his conjugal prerogatives during the journey.

More important matters than our return occupied the people of Himera. A courier ship had braved the spring storms to bring news to Sicily of the fall of Miletus. The Persians, after a long siege, had taken the city by storm, plundered and burned it, and killed or enslaved its people. At the King’s express command Miletus had been leveled to the ground for its part in the rebellion. It had not been easy to destroy a city populated by hundreds of thousands, but the army had managed to do so, aided by engines of war and thousands of Greek slaves.

So ended the dance of freedom. Other Ionian cities suffered somewhat less. True, Greek tyrants again ruled, but the conquered cities experienced no worse than the usual slaughter, arson, raping and looting. But when the revolt had been quelled, the natives were, as always, more merciless than the strangers, and the reinstated tyrants so effectively purged the dancers of freedom that those who had been wise enough to flee to the west with their families and property could be counted